It was very hard to read a book and never have a single idea what was going on. This was a shame because I really liked our two main characters here, Gideon and Harrowhark, and I loved their relationship. In the end, I didn't feel like much of the confusion paid off. I don't think there was a reason I needed to not understand anything that was ever happening. Lots of other reviews seem to disagree with me, but I just thought there was too much to take in. It made it so that I wasn't connecting with any of the characters much--and there were soo many characters. I wonder how my reading experience would have been different if I'd read it versus listened to it on audiobook, but as it was, I could not keep these people straight and didn't really care to in the end. I liked the premise and the concept of the story but the execution just didn't work for me. It was still a good book, and I did enjoy Gideon enough that sometimes I didn't mind being in the dark, but as a whole, this book didn't really leave a mark on me.